Snow days

This post will be really short as we only had two days of school this week thanks to the weather! Tuesday and Wednesday were lost due to a Blizzard that hit New England and brought close to two feet of snow to my area. Most schools in the State were closed both days. Then to add insult to injury, we had another storm come in on Friday dropping another 12 inches or so to my area. I'm not one to complain about no school calls, but I think we could have gotten in at least a half day of school as the snow did not really pick up until the afternoon. Either way, we only had two days of school.

In those two days, we saw the same 4 classes because of our schedule and how the snow days fell. So I haven't seen my AP class, or my Sacrifice for Freedom class in over a week and I still haven't met my new Psychology class yet. The snow days have allowed me to get caught up on my grading and put most of the first semester stuff to rest. However, it would be nice to see those classes!

I did have Honors U.S. History and we spent some time this week discussing the success and failure of Reconstruction after the Civil War and the fight to put Native Americans on Reservations. Both deal with issues connected to racism and we had some great discussions. I also met my new Ethics class and we started off talking about Ethics and talking about what students would do in hypothetical scenarios. Its a lively group ready to discuss and debate so it should be a lot of fun!

I hope that next week I actually get to see my other classes and maybe we can avoid anymore snow days for a few weeks at least!

Mid Terms and Semester Finals

So the way my mind works this week really annoys me. I will try to explain. I like every semester to be treated the same way. No one semester is more important than another. After all, students are awarded 1/2 a credit each semester. Some classes are only a semester long classes well. And yet, to save money on a bus run, we stopped requiring first semester "Finals" several years ago. Teachers are allowed to give them and maybe even encouraged to, but we are not allowed time to grade them nor are students allowed time to prepare or study. As a result, in the Spring students have half days which give them time to prepare and study and gives us time to grade them. Not so for semester one, we have regular classes as usual. I have mentally gotten over the idea that semester 1 is treated differently, even though I think we should have the half days in January (as many High Schools do), but I hate the idea that we can still offer Finals without the time and maybe are encouraged to do so. I believe the school should either say no semester one Finals or go back to having the half days and require them. I doubt very much either one will ever happen!

Now that my rant is over I can comment on the week of Finals. This included some tests and some projects.For my classes that are only one semester, students had to do project Finals. They had to make a documentary film in History v. Hollywood comparing 2 historical films. In Ethics they had to analyze a current ethical dilemma in a slide show. My other two classes are year long and those students had tests this week.

I like the end of the semester and winding things up, but its very busy. Without the half days we try and do the same things we always do, plus issue new schedules and handle schedule changes for the next semester, and make plans for the new semester. This makes things very difficult and stressful! I am greatly looking forward to starting new classes next semester. I already have some exciting plans for both Ethics and Psychology. I will miss the students who are leaving me now, but I also look forward to meeting some new students this semester. Plus some of the students are the same just taking a different class. Next week will be very exciting! For now, I am grading the Finals!

End of the Semester craziness

To start the week I and a Middle School teacher form another part of the state hosted our 2nd webinar. This series was sponsored by the Cross Discipline Literacy Network and our most recent webinar may be viewed here:  http://stateofmaine.adobeconnect.com/p34rissatg2/

For this webinar I shared another Historical Investigation from the book Reading, Thinking, and Writing About History: Teaching Argument Writing to Diverse Learners in the Common Core Classroom, Grades 6-12 (Common Core State Standards for Literacy) by Chauncey Monte-Sano , Susan De La Paz , and Mark Felton. This time around my students investigated which method was more effective for freeing slaves, moral persuasion or more aggressive action. We learned a great deal with this investigation and had a great conversation about nonviolence and violence. In tied in nicely to a discussion about recent protests in the news, and the release of the film Selma in theaters.

As usual for this time of year, I am just too busy to blog about much. I was sick this week and that didn't help. Students were working on their final projects or studying for a test so not much exciting happening on that front! Next week will be the semester finals and then new and exciting things will be happening at the start pf the new semester.

So more good stuff to come next semester!

A New Year Begins

Depression, its every where right now. I feel it, and so do the students. Negative temperatures, dark mornings, snow storms threatening and 8 weeks of winter ahead. It's a tough time of year to get going. Monday was very difficult, everyone was tired and cold. Unfortunately the semester is winding down, so after one day of just dragging, everyone has to start finding energy to do what needs to be done. This was not as hard for me because we are studying the Civil War which I just absolutely love!

We spent some time this week analyzing the Gettysburg Address. This is aligned with common core of course! We also talked about the genius of Abraham Lincoln and I showed two brief clips from the film Lincoln to help students understand his personality a bit more.

In our study of the Civil War, we analyzed the advantages of North and South as well as their characters during the War. We watched the first episode of Ken Burns' The Civil War which is a great introduction to help students understand the total impact of the war on American culture.

In History v. Hollywood we watched the film JFK and discussed the assassination. Students also spent a good deal of time working on their iMovie project. for the project they have to pick 2 historical films on a related topic and compare and contrast them in a 4 minute documentary they make.

In Ethics we have been discussing the origins of political philosophy as it pertains to ethics and justice. This includes looking at the online discussions from Michael Sandel's Justice from Harvard. Students are also working on their Final project. For their Final project, they have selected a current controversial ethical dilemma affecting society and analyzing the dilemma using our analysis protocol including possible resolutions or compromises.

What makes this time of year difficult is that we are trying to wrap up the semester while at the same time planning for scheduling for next school year, and making sure schedules and plans are ready for the second semester to start. Next week I will be delivering my last webinar of the year on a Historical Investigation we did connect to abolition. Also we have a professional development on Friday afternoon leading into the long weekend for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The new film Selma is coming out about Dr. King and I can't wait to see it. I hope someday to use it in my casses. I am looking forward to starting a new semester with a new section of ethics and a new section of psychology!